Components: Buying Smart

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People often say the Internet has changed everything. When buying parts to build your own PC, I’d say they’re right. Being able to research online has made finding the best deals on parts nearly painless — certainly more painless than figuring out which parts you want in the first place.

Today, it’s far more convenient and quicker (and in a lot of cases, less expensive) to fire up a browser and head to a technology or product finder site such as Froogle.com or PriceWatch.com.

In just a few mouse clicks, you’ll have a list of vendors and their best prices for the parts you want, all neatly scrolled down the screen. If you’re really lucky, the site will have ratings on the shop’s trustworthiness and reliability. By typing in your ZIP code, you can calculate sales tax or shipping costs. (Buyer beware: Some shops seem to make more money on shipping your parts than they do on the parts themselves.)

Half of the battle is knowing which parts you want before you start the search.

First, there are just too many parts out there to ask about all of them, and sometimes the advice you get from the salesperson isn’t the best. Case in point: If you don’t play the latest and greatest first-person shooters such as “Doom III,” you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on the latest graphics card. You won’t see a big difference when editing video, trimming photos or loading Web pages.

Second, you can’t rely on picking the part that costs the most as an indicator of cutting-edge technology. It’s likely last year’s 3-D graphics card (or worse yet, one from the year before that) will still be sitting on the shelf and selling for just as much as a state-of-the-art graphics card that’ll “spank it” playing your favorite video game. The upside? That six-month-old list of parts for an $800 PC will probably cost only $600 in a few months. Bottom line: You can spend less, or you can upgrade the components that benefit you and your favorite programs the most.

Finally, knowing what you want and how much it’s worth will help you recognize when it’s a good time to deviate from your list, either for a real bargain or because that motherboard you wanted just can’t be found for sale in the Western hemisphere. Your neighborhood super-geek can probably whip out such a list at the drop of a hat. Unfortunately, finding such an expert on the weekend can be tough. (They’re all inside building PCs or playing video games.)

Even so, the editors at ExtremeTech regularly put together lists of recommended parts in their Build It series of articles.

That neighborhood super-geek’s list is great if you’re looking for a top-of-the-line (and top-priced) gaming system. It’s not so good if you’re looking for something a little less pricey … All too often, they aren’t familiar with the parts that run a tad slower and cost a ton less. To see an example, head on over to Build the Most PC for Your Money.

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